The Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) has declared a nationwide protest over the recent hike in telecommunications tariffs and the Federal Government’s default on the ₦70,000 minimum wage.

According to a communiqué issued after the National Administrative Council (NAC) meeting of the NLC yesterday, he protest is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.
Recall that the Federal Government approved a 50% increase after telecom operators initially requested a 100 percent hike. In response, the NLC on Friday called on Nigerians to prepare for a nationwide boycott of telecommunication services in protest against the increase.
However, after an emergency meeting yesterday, NLC president, Joe Ajaero, said the council rejected the 50 percent hike, describing the increase as “insensitive, unjustifiable, and a direct assault on Nigerian workers and the general populace, who are already burdened by worsening economic hardship”.
He demanded an immediate suspension of the 50%tariff hike, calling on the Federal Government to engage in dialogue with stakeholders, warning that failure to do so might lead to a nationwide boycott of telecommunication services. Ajaero reaffirmed the NLC’s commitment to protecting Nigerian workers and citizens from exploitative economic policies.
In a related development, the NLC has warned State governments and other employers of labour, threatening decisive action against those who fail to implement the ₦70,000 national minimum wage and the corresponding salary adjustments by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
The warning was made by the President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU), Mohammed Ibrahim, during the association’s National Leadership Retreat in Abuja yesterday.

Ibrahim, who also serves as the NLC National Internal Auditor, emphasised that State governments and institutions delaying, or manipulating, wage payments would face serious consequences.
Addressing newsmen, Ibrahim criticised what he called the insincerity of some State governments and employers, accusing them of merely treating the wage increase as an “award” without proper implementation. According to him, “The national minimum wage has been signed into law, and payments should have commenced nationwide. However, in most institutions and States, what they did was just to announce a figure without truly implementing it”.

He noted that the intervention of the NLC had already forced some State governments to rush into agreements – many of which, he described as “kangaroo agreements that have not seen the light of day”. He, however, assured Nigerian workers that the NLC would not relent in its fight for full compliance.